Computer systems typically include bulk storage systems, such as magnetic disc drives, optical storage devices, tape drives, or solid state storage drives, among other storage systems. In these computer systems, a host system, such as a network device, server, or end-user computing device, communicates with external bulk storage systems to store data or to access previously stored data. These bulk storage systems are traditionally limited in the number of devices that can be addressed in total, which can be problematic in environments where higher capacity or higher performance is desired.
One such storage technology variety, namely solid state media, typically relies upon non-moving underlying storage medium elements, such as flash memory, phase change memory, magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), or other media. Although the solid state memory types can see increased throughput relative to moving disc and tape media, these solid state memory types still have throughput limitations. Also, data access in some solid state media is typically performed in large blocks, such as in NAND flash memory, and the desired data portions must be accessed and parsed by the underlying storage media control elements before subsequent reads or writes can occur. Also, typical solid state memory drives exchange data over a single physical link, which further limits data access flexibility and throughput. However, increasing data storage and retrieval in networked, cloud, and enterprise environments find these limitations of solid state memory and associated drive electronics increasingly troublesome.
Overview
In the examples discussed herein, a plurality of solid state memory subsystems are included in a single device and managed by a storage processing system separate from a host system. Each of the plurality of memory subsystems are internally addressed and mapped by the storage processing system in a parallel manner over multiple channels to allow increased capacity, reduced latency, increased throughput, and more robust feature sets than traditional bulk storage systems.
Examples disclosed herein include systems, methods, and software of solid state storage devices. In a first example, a solid state storage device is disclosed. The solid state storage device includes an interface system configured to communicate with an external host system over an aggregated multi-channel interface to receive data for storage by the solid state storage device. The solid state storage device also includes a storage processing system configured to communicate with the interface system to receive the data, process the data against storage allocation information to parallelize the data among a plurality of solid state memory subsystems, and transfer the parallelized data. The interface system is configured to receive the parallelized data, apportion the parallelized data among the plurality of solid state memory subsystems, and transfer the parallelized data for storage in the plurality of solid state memory subsystems, where each of the plurality of solid state memory subsystems is configured to receive the associated portion of the parallelized data and store the associated portion on a solid state storage medium.
In a second example, a method of operating a solid state storage device is disclosed. The method includes, in an interface system, communicating with an external host system over an aggregated multi-channel interface to receive data for storage by the solid state storage device. The method also includes, in a storage processing system, communicating with the interface system to receive the data, processing the data against storage allocation information to parallelize the data among a plurality of solid state memory subsystems, and transferring the parallelized data. The method also includes, in the interface system, receiving the parallelized data, apportioning the parallelized data among the plurality of solid state memory subsystems, and transferring the parallelized data for storage in the plurality of solid state memory subsystems, where each of the plurality of solid state memory subsystems is configured to receive the associated portion of the parallelized data and store the associated portion on a solid state storage medium.